Root Beer Milk Stout - Help!

I've got this Milk Stout base recipe but I want to make it taste like root beer. Ideally in my head I'd add sassafras root to the boil with about 5-10 minutes left, then probably put 2oz of root beer extract into the primary fermenters. This is a 5 gallon recipe, I plan on scaling it up to 10. Let me know your thoughts on ounces of sassafras or really thoughts on anything would be great... Thanks!

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.0 SRM) Grain 56.57 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 8.08 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
12.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
10.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5.05 %
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.04 %
0.35 oz Magnum [12.10 %] (60 min) Hops 18.4 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
1 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8.08 %
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

Safras root is a better way to go. And also a sasafras root vodka tea in secondary too. I personally would stay awat from the xtract unless you can find a really good one. It might taste kinda funky. If you do add extract eith add it to taste or leave in the secondary until the extract merries with the beer and has a chance to lose that fake flavoring taste.

I'll suggest 4oz of sassafras per 5 gallons plus 4oz of sarsaparilla.

I just made a 3 gallon batch of root beer soda with 2oz sassafras and 4oz of sarsaparilla plus several other things. I boiled for 20 minutes and steeped for an hour before cooling. The root beer flavor was decent, but it still needed a little more sassafras.

You can boil and steep the roots separately to maximize your flavor. Sassafras is expensive. I'd imagine you would get less flavor than I did if you only boil it in the wort for 20 minutes and rapidly cool it. Or maybe you could just boil it longer.

Thanks for the responses guys, I am definitely planning to go the all natural "root route" based on these responses. I'm curious MisterTipsy- what were the "several other things" you added to make the root beer? My homebrew store sells sassafras, sasaparilla a number of other roots and natural soda making ingredients as well as a large extract selection. I'd like to make the root beer flavor as authentic as possible.

Thanks again!

Vanilla and a touch of mint IMO

ksharpesays said:

Thanks for the responses guys, I am definitely planning to go the all natural "root route" based on these responses. I'm curious MisterTipsy- what were the "several other things" you added to make the root beer? My homebrew store sells sassafras, sasaparilla a number of other roots and natural soda making ingredients as well as a large extract selection. I'd like to make the root beer flavor as authentic as possible.

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

this is what I used recently

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/root-beer-2-abv-346719/

MisterTipsy - I went with a selection of ingredients from that list in the link you provided above. I went with sassafras, sarsaparilla, ginger, licorice root, a small amount of vanilla extract and a small bundle of fresh mint. The whole brew process went really smoothly, it is fermenting like crazy right now and smells delicious. I will post again with the final result and full recipe when the beer is done. Thanks again everyone for your feedback!

Sounds good. It should taste root beery.

I think it got infected. Probably too much head space in the carboy. Not sure if it is a pellicle or mold. I'm either going to do 1 or the following 4 things.

Idk what to do. I want to fix it somehow. I am going to taste it and determine if bottling is a waste.

1. Siphon everything out below that and bottle as usual.
2. Put Camden tablets in and then carbonate it in a keg.
3. Put Campden tablets in and repitch new yeast? I heard that was possible?
4. Dump it.

Any updates on how this turned out?